Impressing Lily Evans
by Tasha9315
Summary: James Potter falls for Severus's Snape's trick in his attempt to impress Lily Evans.


**House: Gryffindor**

**Class Subject: Transfiguration**

**Category: Standard**

**Prompts: ** **[Speech] "How is it possible that someone as intelligent as (you/Name) can be so unfathomably dense?"**

**Word Count: 1019**

Sixteen year old James Potter was walking back to his common room when he heard voices at the end of the corridor. He recognized one of the voices as Severus Snape's. This immediately perked him up and he hid by the wall to eavesdrop on them, suspecting Snape and his Death Eater friends were up to something,

"You fancy that mudbood don't you, Severus?" asked Mulciber as James clenched his fist but controlled himself from hexing the Slytherin.

"No I don't," Snape insisted.

"Yeah right," James thought to himself.

"I was only friends with her out of habit and because her talents and popularity could come in useful in future. Even our Head of our House sees potential in her despite her mudblood status," said Snape.

"Bastard" James thought to himself as he found it harder to control himself from reacting.

"But it's still unwise to marry a mudblood," said Avery.

"I know. Besides, it's that good for nothing Potter that fancies her," Snape sneered.

"That's right. You wouldn't think that blood traitor Potter was pureblood the way he behaved. But he did you a favor by indirectly causing that mudblood to cut off from you," said Yaxley as Snape looked down in discomfort.

James congratulated himself for the amount of restraint maintained.

"Potter often does stupid things to get her attention, but he's too dense to realize that the one thing Lily Evans would be impressed by is a boy standing naked on the Astronomy Tower and declaring his devotion to her," said Snape.

James's eyes widened with shock as his mouth formed an O shape. Snape's lying he told himself. This can't be true.

"How do you know that?" asked Mulciber.

"She told me when we were still friends that she thought it most remarkable if a boy bravely stood naked on the Astronomy Tower and declared his devotion to her," said Snape said.

"Weird. But not surprising for a mudblood," said Avery as the gang of aspiring Death Eaters walked off, leaving James to his thoughts.

Could Snape be telling the truth? James couldn't think of a reason as to why Snape would lie about this to his friends. He conceded it must be true. It was weird, but he wasn't Mr. Perfect himself, so who was he to judge? He would do this thing to impress Lily.

"James, don't do it. It's ridiculous. There are plenty of other girls. Why are you fixed on Evans? What's so great about her?" asked Sirius, but he immediately regretted the question as his best friend got into a trance explaining why Lily was wonderful.

"James, you'll make a fool of yourself," said Remus.

"I'll make a fool of myself a hundred times for Evans" said a determined James.

"I'll cheer you on, James," said Peter, the ever enthusiastic cheerleader of James.

"Thanks Pete," said James.

"James, think real carefully about this," Sirius warned.

"Really, really carefully," Remus added.

"Mates, I'll be fine. I'm sure I want to do this," James was stubborn in his stance.

Sirius and Remus shook their heads as they exchanged apprehensive looks. They knew they had the lost the argument and there was no way to change their best friend's mind when he was stubbornly set.

James stood on the Astronomy Tower without a single piece of clothing on him as he looked down at the many students looking up at him. They had varying reactions from shocked to apprehensive to amused. His three bestfriends were among the crowd. Sirius and Remus were apprehensive while Peter was leading a subset of the crowd in cheering him on. Snape and his friends looked like Christmas had come early. Just then, Lily and his friends showed up. Finally, the person he was waiting for.

"Evans, I wanted to declare my devotion to you," he said as part of the crowd cheered while Sirius and Remus facepalmed.

Lily looked positively aghast and too stunned to react.

"JAMES POTTER," came the familiar voice of his Head of House. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS? YOU PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON AND MEET ME IN MY OFFICE THIS MINUTE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE EXPELLED," said McGonagall, looking sideways to avoid looking at him.

After he left McGonagall office with a string of detentions and a lecture about how inappropriate his behavior was, he ran into Lily.

"Evans, what did you think?" he asked proudly as Lily smacked him across his face.

"Arrogant toerag," she said as she walked away, leaving him confused.

"Pity how foolish you are, Potter," came a voice behind him.

"What do you want?" he demanded at Snape who was accompanied by his friends.

"I had a bet with my friends you see. That I would humiliate you the way you humiliated me," said Snape. "We knew you were listening in on our conversation. I can't believe how dense you are to have fallen for that trick," Snape sneered.

"You … you … you'll pay for this," James called out as Snape walked away with his amused friends.

"What happened?" asked Sirius who had showed up with Remus and Peter.

"How is it possible that someone as intelligent as you can be so unfathomably dense?" asked Sirius incredulously. "How could you not see that was a trick?"

"I don't know. All I know is that Evans hates me more than ever now and it's all my fault for being so stupid. I don't know why I was dumb enough to believe this would impress her. She's never going to speak to me again, is she?" he asked dejectedly.

"If it makes you feel any better, she didn't really speak to you before this either," said Remus.

"But I'm done. Evans would never like me. There's no point in trying to impress her anymore. All I'm doing is embarrassing myself and upsetting her," he threw his hands up in the air.

And James meant it too. Lily didn't want him and he didn't want to force himself on her. And he couldn't blame her either. He had begun to realize how arrogant and horrible he was.


End file.
